1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to test systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to network test systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Direct broadcast satellite systems transmit audio and video television signals directly to receivers located at subscriber locations, typically in the home. Currently, the network is monitored manually. That is, an individual physically monitors the video and audio output of one or more channels of a direct broadcast satellite receiver. While this approach may be acceptable in applications where a small number of channels are used, inasmuch as current systems employ 300-400 channels, manual monitoring has severe limitations and is somewhat subjective.
Automatic monitoring has been available to a limited extent to detect packet loss for certain communication systems using MPEG2 analyzers. However, these analyzers are incapable of detecting frozen frames and are not adapted to work upstream with the direct transport protocol of direct satellite system (DSS) signals used in direct to home (DTH) networks. Use of MPEG2 analyzers downstream of a receiver adapted to decode direct transport protocol formatted signals would be prohibitively expensive for most applications due to the relatively high cost of each analyzer (on the order of thousands of dollars) and the need to provide an analyzer on each downstream channel in a system having several hundred channels.
Hence, a need exists in the art for a system and method for automatic remote monitoring multiple broadcast channels of a direct to home (DTH) satellite television network in or near real time.